How Close is Close Enough
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- Опубликовано: 26 янв 2025
- This is a brief introduction into additional insights gained from using magnification for scale modeling. It is also an introduction to the Scale Model Workshop website and Patreon Channel.
Magnification Page at Scale Model Workshop:
scale-model-wo...
Scale Model Workshop Website:
Scale Model Workshop website scale-model-wo...
Scale Model Workshop on Patreon:
/ scalemodelworkshop
Cataract surgeon and modeler here.
You nailed the topic on all levels, as usual.
Also, as you mentioned in an early podcast, proper illumination will strike a difference as well.
I love your take on our hobby. Always a class in itself.
Thank you Milton!
Paul, thank you for your wisdom you are sharing with us. Wish you long, happy and productive life.
Thank you. All too often, we forget that what we do is a hobby and not work. It's a lot more fun that way, and oddly enough, yields better results.
After learning your strategy of the "overall look" from one of your FSM articles years ago, I now spend MUCH less time on my beloved interior details that will never be seen, and concentrate on what it looks like from a short distance. WHen starting a new project, I ask myself, "What is the first impression? What draws my eyes in first?" Now I use that time to do better canopies, obvious seams, and paint finishes. I've also adopted my fine art skills, such as they are, to create a finish using brush and pastels techniques that mimic the real thing. And after spending many hours working up close on my beloved scale models, I get up from the bench and go fix dinner or blow leaves off the roof, and then sneak back in and have a look at my work and enjoy how it makes me smile. I just don't get too close.
Great to see a new upload Paul. You're so right about both vision and the value of the time we modellers invest in this hobby.
It's great seeing another upload
Thank you Paul. Your P-38 technique really got me out of my comfort zone. As a result, my abilities, skills and overall presentations are vastly improved. Thank you again.
Thank you for another great video. In my past life I restored Steam traction engines, huge smelly things that got covered in scratches as soon as you look a them. Every engine was brush painted just as they would have been 100 years ago. If the owner stood a foot away and stared at he paint every brush line would show up. If how ever the owner stood ten feet away and observed the entire engine the paint looked splendid. Now we tried to get the best finish we could, but the reality was its a huge machine painted in a traditional way. I guess what im trying to say is enjoy the bigger picture and dont stress over the fine details.
I've always said that building models is part engineering, part chemistry and science and part art and you get to decide how much of each one of those parts you want to engage.
Don’t forget history.
And thats the beauty of scale modelling for me: how it blends all off these areas together
Your content and comments are very much appreciated. As I have aged the size of the parts and assembly does pose a problem. Magnifying is used when parts get so small that anyone with normal vision would be tasked. This video was time well spent. Thanks so much.
It's always a pleasure to watch your videos, sir.
Paul, you are a true inspiration, it's not the first time you have reignited my love for model building.
Thanks from Chile.
I'm 71 and still build model kits. I don't use any magnification. I just remove my everyday glasses, and get down close. With a good light source I can see what I'm doing well enough to complete the kit to my satisfaction. Model building is fun, and I want to keep it that way.
Always great to hear from you again Dr. Paul!! You've been an inspiration !! Thank you
For me, some of the wisest words on scale modeling ever spoken! Thank you for sharing them!
Always a good day when you post a video Paul.
Very good observations, and I find another aspect of "close enough" I experience on model projects is overall proportion vs. exact scale size. 1/25 scale trucks are a favourite modelling subject and some of the kit parts, such as frame rail webs and flanges, are thicker than the actual real truck parts reduced in size 25 times. When scratch building items to go on the kit frame and replicate a specific truck, making the scratch built parts exactly to scale size often results in them looking undersize so I may use a heavier styrene strip or brass wire, for example .030" instead of .020", to keep everything in proportion. Just like nathanbond8165 states about building models being a combination of engineering, chemistry and art.
Thank you for interesting point of view and these helpfull advice for the modelers' community... Best wishes from Berlin, Christian
Welcome back! You've been missed!
Welcome back! It's great to see a new upload.
Long time no see , good to see you back . I enjoye lesning and learning.
great to see you back!
Nice to see you back in action! Greets from Munich, Germany
You are a philosopher.
Great to see a new vid from you! You’ve always set the standard for RUclips modeling channels! Wishing you the best of holidays, and hope you find time to crank out a few more vids in the coming months!
Yes! Yess!! Another Paul upload!!! LETS GO! :DD
The most instructive model channel on YT. I wish you were able to do more content. I shall check your web as I’m sure it’s valuable as a resource.
I bought 3x dental loupes several years ago. They were on special for about $600. It has been well worth it to figure painting, model building, some amateur watch making and just fixing tiny broken things. Now I should probably buy a light!
Thank you for that insightful view of yours. I find it all too true that it is easy to get caught up in details and contours that will almost always go unnoticed. I find it most true in my main scale of 1/76.2, where I find myself spending hours upon hours of exacting the contour and shape of screw link couplings (a common feature of British railways). I become obsessed about making sure the links are rounded, using needle files that are far too big to minimise the time spent, and then proceed to use such couplings hauling rolling stock. It really is a test of what type of modeller you are. In most cases, no one would bat an eye at me trying to use a near microscopic Tommy bar, and for good reason, many would just use an automatic coupling, or at least suffice with an etched/overscale equivalent. While I still have the eyesight to appreciate this insignificant details, I feel that I must refine them, but for how long? I’m afraid I will never know. I may just continue to obsess until I can’t tell what type of coupling it even is, but for the meanwhile, I feel victorious that I can pull such a thing off, and that is just fine for me…
As a scale modeller myself, I can try my hardest and appreciate the work I tried to accomplish.
I love this. I think we all begin a kit with an ideal, and settle for good enough. Hopefully good enough gets better each kit.
Thank you for the wise words!
I've been saying for years now that an imperfect model still looks great when part of a collection. Take a step back and look at your body of work from time to time - not just the individual builds. A finished imperfect model is always going to look better than an unfinished build.
Thank you so much for your knowledge, humility and perspective.
Welcome back
Thanks - great philosophy. Now that I'm retired, and have all the time in the world to perfect my craft. I find that I've become satisfied with a lot of my techniques and products. And some techniques, particularly those centered on photo-etch part additions, are too wrought with frustration phenomena, to be of any value to me. My dioramas (my specialty) are good enough for me, and most folks. I hardly ever bother with competitions any more. I have enough awards cluttering up my shelves. In fact, I'm out of shelf space for my completed projects. - a truly terrible situation, as I have many more kits in my stash... Ralph
Great video as always!
Thanx
You raise some excellent points. I've had eye problems for most of my life. While these were corrected to provide 20/20 vision under "normal" conditions, I never became comfortable wearing magnifiers on top of regular glasses when modeling. As my eyesight declines further I've been forced to stop super-detailing, competing in shows and building kits smaller than 1/35-1/32 scales. Coping with these changes has actually been beneficial as I now build what I want, when I want to a standard pleasing myself alone.
Great video.
On my next pair of modeling glasses I am going to pay a lot of attention to the Prism settings so that my eyes can remain pointing normally when the focus point is only a short distance from my nose. Read about this in a ship modeler's shop note from the 80'.
Well said, Paul.
very wise observations
That was very enjoyable Paul. Do your nice old Loupes have a brand name on them? I would love to try and find a old clip on set like those over here in the Uk. Cheers Tony
They were made by Leitz.
@@scale-model-workshop thank you, appreciate it.
Well said.
The same thing happens when I shoot digital photos of my work. I consider something perfect or at least good enough. Then I take a photo and I see things I suddenly see things I consider flaws. This drives me nuts. I have come to the conclusion that if I don't see the "flaw" with my eyes under good lighting, then I am just being OCD and will let the imperfection go.
I think the question is also how you expect your model to be viewed. No one is going to barge in your hobby room door, put on magnifying glasses, take models from the shelf and look at them held right before their face. Of course, details that are smaller than what we see from a distance, impact the view from a distance. Even minute bumps in a surface will bend and twist all highlights on your glossy paint, and thick trailing edges or gear doors can betray the true size of a model even if the person looking at it can't point out exactly why it looks artificial. Shooting your model with a camera will always be different than looking at it in person. Consider how the model is going to be viewed rather than going for the most minute approach in all regards by default
God bless!
My view is, “ if it looks better than the last build, then it’s good enough “. As long as it’s still fun,I will keep going. When it is no longer fun, that’s when I walk away. That’s what happened with radio controlled sailboats for me. It wasn’t fun anymore. Plus my eyesight is going downhill.
I can't seem to find the specific video or page you refer to on magnification, please help. I am definitely in need of a magnification solution with a reasonable working distance. Thanks so much.
The secret is the italian coffee... 😉
Absolutely ❤
1:42 Med training wise-a--ery. Always thought, but best not verbalized. A Hospitalist I know never berates students for errors. They simply confiscate their stethoscope and only return it when the error has been admitted to, research has been performed, and a solution to prevent reoccurrence of said error from happening again.
I've always believed dentist make the best models , seriously they are trained to work in small detai, tight areas and have excellent access to specialist tools.
I've learned to embrace little flaws in artwork. Nothing is perfect, nor does it need to be.
I can't help but notice when you go to an airshow for example, the airplanes are Anything but restored. A P-51 with perfectly crisp and clean paint lines is Not accurate. The D-Day invasion stripes for example were often hastily applied by hand with large brushes ad were very rough up close, but good enough at any appreciable distance. Brush lines and jagged edges would have been historically accurate, so why not accept this reality in a model of that very same aircraft?
There was even one P-51 with false invasion stripes. The real mustang it represented had camo painted over the top of the invasion stripes on the upper wings and fuselage once that squadron was moved to an airbase in France, so that it didn't stand out like a sore thumb when parked on the ground. But the restoration painted the stripes over the camo. The airplane had originally been unpainted, then adding stripes for D-Day, then adding camo to the top once based in France. And the real camo paint had been another rush job done overnight by the ground crews.
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